Photos by Braden King for Raygun magazine

I did a long phone interview today with a gal in New York named Steffi, for a feature in Raygun magazine that’s coming out I think in December. Braden King’s going to take photos for it tomorrow, we’re going to the planetarium!! How exciting. Going to the planetarium I mean… I dunno how good the interview went. I ran out of coffee, didn’t have a single drop today, which gave me a headache, which might have made me a little weird on the phone. I made some joke about how I shouldn’t smoke pot and do phone interviews at the same time… of course Steffi says "you KNOW that’s going in there!" Gawd, like there’s not enough things to pick on about me… she also said something about how boy-crazy I’ve been lately. I had to explain how this is probably just a phase… ‘cuz I’ve been living and/or going with some guy or another almost my whole life! I’m just not used to it, I need a relationship to nurture and feed off of. Should I just plant myself a vegetable garden instead?

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Played an outdoor music festival in Halas Field at Loyola University

With: Assembly Line People Program; The Nerves; Starball; Handsome Family; Sarge; Pegboy

My band: Steve Dorocke (pedal steel, dobro); Rick Rizzo (bass); Gerald Dowd (drums)

A review by Tom Wright that appeared in the Staten Island Sunday Advance (Staten Island, NY)…

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Hey, I finished that song today! I like it, I think it came out good, though I can’t be sure until Rian Murphy hears it and tells me he digs it. (Me and my fragile ego.) Took me all day to sew it together and get it demo’ed, I didn’t even leave the house ’til 9:30!! I think it’s called "You’re Decided"… I was gonna call it "Emotion Detector" but I think that’s too corny. I looked up that title in the BMI database and can’t find anything… of course they had lots of listings for the ol’ chestnut "You’re UNdecided". So that’ll be my little nod to that song. I can’t remember how that goes but I’m sure it’s nothing like what I just did.

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I’m in the middle of working on another tune so this’ll have to be kinda short, I don’t wanna lose my train of thought and stuff. It’s coming out pretty cool, it’s almost finished. Okay halfway finished… if I work on it tonight and tomorrow I can get it demoed by the weekend. I don’t know what it’s called yet, but it’s a slow sad bluesy thing, like a Pony Song in tears. Yeah yeah, same old shit, but what can I say? I really am sad and lonely, it ain’t no songwriting gimmick. I mean, I dig living alone and having time to myself, but I also want love and affection in my life, doesn’t everybody? God, it just mystifies me that people can go years and years without a s.o., I think I’d go insane if I stayed by myself for too long. So… yeah. ::tap tap tap:: I know, I shouldn’t be so frickin’ impatient.

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I have some super good news: I’m finally divorced!!! My sister Lucie (the lawyer) told me on Friday. Yeah… it took 2-1/2 years but it’s finally official, the judgment has been signed and I’m a legally free woman again. As soon as I get my copy of the decree, I’m gonna go get a new driver’s license with my REAL name on it… Edith Frost, that is. My current one has that old "married name" which I really don’t ever want to hear again. I’m so grateful to Lucie (and Judy, the lawyer in New York that did the dirty work) for helping me get all that shit behind me.

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I went thrift-store shopping with Jeff Fisher yesterday, that was fun. We went around to three or four places… Jeff just opened a store of his own that sells some thrifty-type clothes, among other things, so he was shopping for stuff to sell. He found some really awesome fur-covered boots, like something Ted Nugent would wear, and a giant mod-style painting which he ended up having to take apart in order to fit inside the teensy rent-a-car he was driving. (His store is called the Cellar and it’s on Milwaukee underneath Modern Times, so go there and tell ‘em I sent you!!) I got a couple of shirts and a dress for myself, only spent eight bucks. We had lunch at this Middle Eastern restaurant on N. Kedzie called Salam, it was really yummy. Now I know I don’t have to drive all the way to Greektown to get that stuff.

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The Pine Valley Cosmonauts: SALUTE THE MAJESTY OF BOB WILLS: KING OF WESTERN SWING, PIONEER, TRADITIONALIST, AVANT-GARDIST, MAGICIAN
©1998, Bloodshot #BS029
More info * Purchase at Amazon

Each song features a different singer.  I did all the vocals on the song "My Window Faces The South". Other singers include Alejandro Escovedo, Neko Case, Kelly Hogan, Robbie Fulks, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and the Meat Purveyors.

I never did hear back from that lady that saw me at Schuba’s. Maybe I scared her off, which would be unfortunate… but I dunno, it still seems a little weird for somebody to be complaining about what I write in my diary. I am not a music reviewer! And the whole point of a diary is that I get to write about whatever I want… sure, I like to drop names but I shouldn’t feel like it’s my duty or nothin’. Yeah yeah, I know I’m being overly defensive; this whole diary thing is a big issue with me. I’m always questioning why I’m doing this and why I’d tell people the things that I do… always wondering whether I’m going too far over the line with what I say, or not saying enough. It’s dicey no matter how I look at it and I’ll probably never feel 100% right about it. But that’s true of everything I do, to some extent.

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Photos taken by Alexis Wilson outside a park building by the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago.  (This photo was later used on the the back cover of my CD-EP Love Is Real)

I got an e-mail today that kinda hurt my feelings. This gal writes:

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My bedroom in the space I shared on S. Wabash in Chicago, towards the end of August ’98. This was just as I started packing up to move to another apartment… but then I only lived in this place like five months, so it’s not like I had everything unpacked anyway.  But omigod, look at all that junk!!  And look at Junebug, fast asleep in the computer chair.

Excerpted from a show review by Bill Meyer that appeared in the Chicago Tribune…

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Played the Goose Island Goosefest with Pinetop Seven

My band: Steve Dorocke (pedal steel, dobro); Ryan Hembrey (bass, accordion); Gerald Dowd (drums)